"So we just follow the arrows then?" Ben asked.
"Yeah they'll lead us to the force field."
Down the tunnel they could see several silhouettes of people waiting, he closed his left eye and activated Horus.
He could see they were waiting by a force and at the other side of it was the stream of acid rushing by.
As they got close enough to them, they stopped, the lights above them were already flickering.
Ben looked at them and then at Ingrid, by the look on her face, he could tell she shared his worry.
"Are you all well rested?" The red haired asked the group, one of them chuckled and said, "how about you? You know you didn't need to go back for them."
She laughed off his remark and said," you help out however you can."
"Sure lady but this place, it's not exactly the kind of place we're you..."
He saw the look in her eyes and the genuine kindness and lightheartedness in them and it threw him off a bit, he stuttered and continued,
"You saw them didn't you, the acid , you saw it dissolve the, you can't tell where it's going to come from next you gotta be careful you gotta look out for yourself."
The three other people in the group were silent but Ingrid could sense a bit of hostility, worse they seemed over protective of the red head.
'She must know the way out of here then,' Ingrid thought.
The lights flickered again and this time they couldn't stay silent.
"Hey I think we're trapped here," Ben said and everyone in the party looked at him except the red head her eyes were still on the acid rushing by.
"Looks like we got a genius on our hand," the man said and chuckled at his own joke.
The lights flickered again and Ben got even more worried then Ingrid touched him on the shoulder and said,
"Relax, it's obvious they don't have a death wish."
The red haired girl turned to them suddenly and said, "get ready the tunnel is about to dry out."
Suddenly they could hear the roaring of the stream of acid echoing from where they came, instinctively Ben knew the force fields they had run through to get here were all down now, leaving nothing to protect them from the stream of acid.
Now even the people in her party were beginning to panic,
"Hey I thought you said it'll give."
The lights flickered again but the redhead remained silent like she hadn't even heard him.
Hey red! I'm talking to you!.
They could feel the tunnel vibrating under their feet, it was intense like a tremor to an earthquake.
The light flickered and turned off, Ben gasped, he had caught a glimpse of the acid making its way down towards them.
The force field in front of the was still up and worse and not only that it seems the stream of acid at the other side of it wasn't going to end anytime soon.
Damn it red, it's coming for us, the man said.
Ben knew they had no more than ten seconds left
*****
[BOOST LEVEL(1)]
[Time Left]
××00:02:47××
William grumbled as he saw the system notice. 'So all this while I've been running with the booster on? You've gotta be kidding me'
'Damn it, my body must be really spent for the boost to be thus slow.
William's physical ability was quite low and the booster itself was of a low grade as well, so it could only do so much for him.
Its looks like we're going to make it pops
Yeah you think so?
William was short of breath and covered in sweat, the extra weight was really getting to him but what he had on his side was his great endurance and his large lungs capacity.
Yeah he said to the old man but he didn't believe William for a second, he could hear the acid rushing after them as the walls of the tunnel echoed their doom.
Perhaps William could make it if he ditched the old man, this thought ran through both their minds and William rejected the idea he even felt awful just for thinking about it.
But the other man considered the idea. William wasn't aware but the old man was actively searching for a way to aid him.
He knew William wouldn't have the heart to leave me behind even with the acid right in on his hill.
He could tell William was the kind of person who would ignore the facts and still push on to save someone even if the reality of the situation told him he couldn't.
The old man found what he was looking for. With the guide all that was required to control it was the intent, one could quietly use it without uttering a single word.
With his arms interlocked across William's shoulders all he had to do was adjust a little bit to be able to place his hand on William's chest.
With him making direct contact he could affect the status of William's guide.
"William deactivate your shield!?"
"What?"
"Just do it, there's no time to explain, trust me!"
Trust me, William didn't trust that phrase one bit, it was clichéd and in his business, two timers and back stabbers would often use many variations of this phrase and it always ended the same way.
Williams' instinctive reaction was to reject the idea but he realized the old man had nothing to gain in this situation.
Wilaim expressed his intent and the shield was deactivated then he felt a warm aura streaming to his body from the old man's hand, still he kept his pace as he ran then a new notice appeared on his POV.
[ ACCEPT ADDED BOOSTER ]
[YES] [NO]
The old man had used one of the four base abilities, the TRANSFER(+), to send a booster directly to william.
'YES,' William thought.
[BOOST ×4]
'Times for?'
[TOTALLED TO LEVEL 3]
'Huh?'
William felt his muscle tighten and his heart grew firmer, he felt a renewing fire in his lung and the ache in his spine disappeared completely and before he knew it he was running faster and faster.
The old man smiled, he was proud to see his plan working so he turned back to check on the distance between them and the stream of acid and he gasped like a monster had jumped at him.
Well it might as well have been a monster cause the stream of acid was right at his face.
We have to go faster, it's catching up to us.he said but William could barely hear him for all the noise.
Even with the added speed it seemed the stream would swallow them whole at any moment. At the bottom left corner of his pov William could see the rate at which he was consuming the booster as well as the time he had left before they ran out.
'Could I increase the rate?' He wondered and as if to answer his question, the rate symbol blinked twice and it caught his attention, knowing he had nothing to lose, he said.
'Guide double booster rate!'
[DOUBLING BOOSTER RATE]
'It worked!'
William felt even more energy surge through him,he was going faster, faster than ever before but still looking down the tunnel it seems like they was no end to it just a dark abyss